Join us for an evening with Alli Frank and Asha Youmans, authors of the new novel, Tiny Imperfections. They will be in conversation (and laughter) about their experiences working in private school admissions and collaborating on their fabulously funny novel, which brings their experiences to the page. The story has been called “hilarious, cringe-worthy and all too relevant” as it tackles one woman’s journey through work, race, and motherhood. Book signing to follow.
Tiny Imperfections
Josie Bordelon is on a mission to prevent her seventeen-year-old daughter, Etta, from making the same mistakes she did when she was coming of age. She’s now the Director of Admissions at Fairchild Country Day School, the most sought-after private school in San Francisco, which also happens to be her alma mater and the school Etta is about to graduate from. Josie was not a child of privilege, but rather one of four scholarship students of color at Fairchild in the 1990s. Her beloved Aunt Viv, who raised her and has helped her raise Etta, works as the school’s longtime head cook and is their family’s rock. As a new admissions season opens, Josie must contend with the obsessed, overbearing, ultra-wealthy parents willing to do just about anything to guarantee their child a spot in kindergarten. On the home front, Etta is fighting the path Josie has painstakingly laid out for her.
A powerful mother-daughter story, interracial romance, and deliciously fun schoolyard drama, Tiny Imperfections is also a celebration of a fundamental truth: It doesn’t matter who you are—race, religion, sexual orientation. When raising a child all parents share a common goal: for their child to find success and true happiness.
Alli Frank has worked in education for over twenty years in San Francisco and Seattle, from an overcrowded, cacophonous public high school to a pristine private girl’s school. She has been a teacher, curriculum leader, coach, college counselor, assistant head, sometimes pastor, often mayor, and de facto parent therapist. A graduate of Cornell and Stanford University, Alli is a resident of Ketchum, Idaho, as of July 2020. Tiny Imperfections is her first novel.
Asha Youmans attended public schools until graduating from one of the foremost private schools in the Pacific Northwest. After receiving a degree from the University of California, Berkeley, she returned to Seattle where she taught in public and private elementary schools for nearly 20 years. Tiny Imperfections is her firstnovel.
